Client User Guide

The Taskbar & Web pages are both used to enable you as a Client or an Advisor to use the BitWine network. With the BitWine network every Advisor is also a Client, yet, if you want to get an Advisor specific documentation you may find it in the Advisor User Guide.

Once you have registered your BitWine account, you are ready to search for an Advisor.

Searching for Advisors from the Taskbar

There are three ways to search for the Advisor that is right for you, two on the web and one from the Taskbar. To search for an Advisor from the Taskbar type some keywords related to the advice topic sought in the area marked as "enter advice topic".

Then press on the Taskbar, to open a web page with your search results.

Searching for Advisors from the web

To Search from the web site go to www.bitwine.com

You can either type the keywords that describe the service you are looking for in the "Search for an Advisor" field and press , or press the "Browse categories" button. Both of these are found near the top of every page on the BitWine website.

If there are Advisors in the BitWine Network who offer the service you are seeking, you will be shown their information, including their name, a description of their service, the per-minute rate to speak to them, and their Client Reviews.

Advisor availability (Presence)

To the left of their name, you will see a Status icon. If this is a green phone icon, then they are currently accepting calls. You can click this icon to initiate a call to this Advisor.

If the Presence icon shows that they are not currently available , then you can also use the Calendar "Meeting" icon on the far right to request an appointment at the time of your choosing.

The Presence icon may show a No Entry sign when the Advisor is busy or a clock if the Advisor stepped a way from his computer for a second.

Accessing an Advisor's Profile

If you would like to learn more about an Advisor before requesting an appointment with them, simply click on their name. This will take you to their BitWine Profile page, with the full description they have provided of their service, their credentials, and their Client Reviews from other BitWine members.

You can also call, initiate a live chat or request an appointment from the Profile page, using the phone icon (if green) below their picture, chat window or the "schedule an appointment" link to the right of their picture.

When you call your Advisor, if your downloaded and installed BitWine Taskbar and it is running (you can tell by presence of the little orange man near the clock in your Windows system tray) your BitWine Taskbar will launch your Skype phone, which will allow you to speak with your Advisor, and also to see them if they have a webcam set up.

If BitWine Taskbar is not running and advisor does not support other call options besides Skype you will be taken to the page where you have a link to download it or if you already have it installed you can simply click the "Call" button to call your Advisor.

BitWine Taskbar will be opened and following window will appear on the left bottom corner of you screen.

The payment process

You will not be charged at the very beginning of your call. First, you will get a brief free consultation in which you and your Advisor will introduce yourselves and agree on the topic you wish to discuss during your call. Once you both agree to go ahead with the call, then charging can begin. At this time, you will be asked to choose how much BitWine credit you would like to purchase for this call. The credit you authorize is not your payment, it is merely your way of saying, " this is my budget for this call, please warn me when I reach that limit".

For instance, if the Advisor charged 25 cents/minute, and you wanted to speak with them for 30 minutes, then you would want to authorize a purchase of $7.50 of BitWine credit. Once you have decided on the amount, you will be taken to a PayPal page where you can authorize the purchase.

Any credit that remains unused at the end of the call will not be charged to your PayPal account. So if you purchased 30 minutes worth of credit, but only spoke with your Advisor for 20 minutes, the remaining 10 minutes, or $2.50 in the example above, would not be charged to your account. If your credit runs out during your call, you will need to authorize a further purchase of credit to continue. So for ease of use, it is best to authorize an original purchase amount slightly larger than what you think you will need.

Once you have authorized the purchase of BitWine credit, your Advisor will start charging and your session can begin.

Throughout your session, the BitWine Taskbar will display the amount of time spent on the call, as well as the amount of unused credit remaining.

"More actions" on the Taskbar

During the call, there are several other Taskbar functions that you or your Advisor can perform. Your Advisor can pause and resume charging if necessary, you can pay additional credit for extra services rendered (using the Send Check option in the More Actions menu), or your Advisor can refund you for credit already used.

Terminating a Call (Checking out)

When you and your Advisor have completed your session, either party may end the call by clicking the red "hang up" button on the left of your BitWine Taskbar, or just press Skype Hang up button. Once the call has ended, your Skype screen will close and the Taskbar will let you know how much of your credit was used. This is the amount that will actually be charged to your PayPal account; you will not be charged for any unused credit.

Reviewing your Advisor's performance

When the call is concluded, the Review window will pop up from the Taskbar, asking you to rate the service you received from your Advisor.

This Review will be used by the rest of the BitWine community to help them decide which Advisor is right for them. Honesty is the best policy! Remember that the Advisor is also leaving a Review of you as a Client, which will help other Advisors decide whether to accept appointments with you in the future.

More help

If this user guide did not answer any of your questions about what it means to be a Client in the BitWine Network, please visit our support page for assistance.

If you want to learn more on using the Taskbar and Web as an Advisor you may find it the Advisor User Guide.

Find out more info about Taskbar releases.